Knotless suture devices and repairs and known in the art. For example, a knotless suture anchor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,329,272 (a two piece Arthrex PushLock® anchor) to facilitate tissue fixation to bone. Similarly, a knotless anchor that allows tensioning of the suture as necessary and after insertion into bone is disclosed in US Publication No. 2013/0096611 (filed Sep. 14, 2012 and entitled “Tensionable Knotless Anchors with Splice and Methods of Tissue Repair”), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herewith.
As detailed in US Publication No. 2013/0096611, the knotless suture anchor has a configuration which allows the suture to be spliced and passed through itself within the suture anchor, to create a construct (knotless adjustable cinching loop) that is tensionable after insertion in bone (to allow attached tissue to be brought proximate to bone) and without requiring tying of any knots. The suture is spliced by providing a shuttle/pull device (in the form of a suture passing device such as a FiberLink™ or a nitinol loop) attached to a flexible strand and within the body of a suture anchor, and by pulling on the shuttle/pull device subsequent to the suture anchor being secured into the bone. In this manner, the final construct includes a knotless self-locking mechanism (knotless adjustable cinching loop) that allows the user (the surgeon) to control the tension of the suture strand on the soft tissue to be attached to bone, and to also control the location of the tissue with respect to the bone.
There is a need for a knotless anchor construct which has a knotless adjustable cinching loop that is secured and locked at the end of the tensioning of the construct. Also needed are methods of locking a cinching loop to prevent loosening of the loop and pulling out of the fixation device (anchor). Also needed is a tensionable anchor that does not require tying of knots and allows improved adjustment of both the tension of the suture and the location of the tissue with respect to the bone.